Angered that a one-time friend had snitched to police, four Hazleton area men lured him to a remote part of Schuylkill County where they beat him to death with metal baseball bats, hitting him as many as 80 times, authorities say.

Police said the victim, Anthony V. Locascio, 21, who recently moved to Hazleton, and the suspects all knew each other and shared a devotion to a hardcore hip-hop group known for espousing violence.

After the beating, the men removed Locascio's clothes and jewelry as part of their retaliation against him for ratting on a fellow follower of the hip-hop group, state police said.

Authorities announced they had arrested four men for the crime, less than two days after Locascio's battered body was found in a wooded area of East Union Township, about 20 miles west of Hazleton.

Charged early Thursday with homicide, conspiracy, aggravated assault and simple assault are Shane D. Roof, 20, with no known address but formerly of Palmerton; Andrew A. Tutko II, 19, of McAdoo, Schuylkill County; and Jeffrey A. Gombert, 19, and Curtis T. Foose, 25, who lived together in Hazleton. They are in Schuylkill County Prison without bail.

During a news conference at the state police barracks in Frackville, Schuylkill County District Attorney James Goodman and state police investigators declined several times to identify the name of the hip-hop group. But a source close to the investigation later confirmed the group is the Insane Clown Posse, a Detroit band that Gombert, Foose and Locascio referred to on their MySpace pages.

Insane Clown Posse, which performs a mix of metal and rap, has a dedicated following -- male fans refer to themselves as ''juggalos,'' and the females call themselves ''juggalettes'' -- that published reports link to a number of killings across the country. Followers often make up their faces to look like clowns, with white background and dark slashes. Their symbol is a dreadlocked character running with a hatchet, known as the hatchetman.

In Monroe County earlier this year, two teens who described themselves as juggalos stabbed 21-year-old Michael Goucher to death, prompting Monroe detectives there to identify the juggalos as a local gang, according to published reports.

Both Palmerton and Hazleton police said Thursday they never heard of the term juggalo or the group Insane Clown Posse.

The four men had been friends of Locascio, even lived with him, but that all changed when he went to Hazleton police and told them about a car vandalism in July.

Locascio's body was discovered around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, and state police sought to identify him by releasing photos of his tattoos to the media. Less than 12 hours later, the arrests were made.

Though police referred to a hardcore hip-hop group in a news release, investigators said the killing wasn't about music.

An arrest affidavit says the suspects told state police they killed Locascio, whom they referred to as a snitch, because he recently went to Hazleton police and told them that he and an accomplice cut the brake lines to a vehicle owned by Robin Hannah. They also poured sugar in the gas tank, said police, who identified Hannah as the estranged husband of a friend of Locascio.

The incident led to a feud between Locascio and his friends.

According to the affidavit:

The suspects admitted they lured Locascio to the wooded area along Old Mill Road in East Union with the intention of killing him.

They told Locascio they were driving to the location to buy 2 pounds of marijuana. Once they got there, Locascio got out of the vehicle to smoke marijuana, and the four suspects got out and started hitting him with bats.

When Locascio fell to the ground, the suspects inflicted another 60 to 80 blows to his head and upper body. An autopsy revealed that he suffered numerous blunt-force injuries to the head, causing a fatal skull fracture.

District Attorney Goodman and state police would not talk about the hip-hop connection at their news conference.

''There may be some relation to a group,'' Goodman said. ''At this point, we are not going to comment on that and the way the body was left behind.''

The news release does say: ''Retaliation against the victim for 'ratting' on a fellow follower resulted in the accused removing the victim's clothes and jewelry after the brutal beating.''

Juggalos typically wear dark clothing, piercings and merchandise of the band Insane Clown Posse, or ICP. The band's members are known for their painted faces and aggressive, often violent, lyrics. While some police have started identifying juggalos as a gang, followers consider themselves a family and the music a religion.

Like the ICP band, Foose is wearing dark clothing and white and black face paint in a photo on his MySpace page.

On his page, Gombert, who refers to his friends as the Govnors of Death and the Juggalo Family, says ''generally I'm a nice guy but I can handle myself pretty good when i have to. If a friend were to ask e for help of any kind, I would do anything I possibly could to help them.''

Locascio writes ''juggalo 4 life-wicked clowns never die,'' on his page, where he also lists his address as Shangri La, Pennsylvania.